Atlanta Gastro Doc I recommend

[Suze]

Hi. I had a tremendously long post completed, hit "send", and it went out into cyberspace! Doncha just hate that?!?!

So in an effort to help someone...here we go again....

I was diagnosed in early June after Levaquin for bronchitis/pneumonia. Been through flagyl, vancomycin, erroneous lab reports, etc. Not exactly an easy ride as you well know if you are on this forum!

God bless the day I found this forum. Two doctors are listed from Atlanta who do fecal transplants. Thinking I might be going in that direction, I got in to see the first one I could...Dr. Bruce Kalmid. Five days off of vanco, with the "dreaded D" returning, my husband I and set out for our 50 mile drive to the opposite side of ATL. We, of course, would have driven to Alaska at this point!

Brain fog is a big reality for me, so my husband and I both went in the exam room. I had accumulated a legal page of questions. My husband had the blank legal page to write down Dr. K's comments and answers. His bedside manner is warm. He is a good listener. We soon learned he knew exactly what I was going through and he was going to help me. I think the moment of that realization was the first full breath I have taken since diagnosis! (He also did a blood screen. The results showed a marked deficit in Vitamin D. So, taking meds to build that up also.)

Unexpectedly, our United Healthcare covers dificid. Dr. K recommended we try a round of dificid. (Just fyi...our insurance copay appeared high to us at $65. Then we saw in fine print at the bottom of our pharmacy receipt..."Your insurance saved you $4,025." Yes....that is not a typo!!!! 20 pills, one each morning, one each night. Thank God for United Healthcare!)

So, I will take the 20 pills, then visit Dr. K in early October. I am hopeful. The dificid will either have cured me, or not. Dr. K described the transplant procedure in detail. I am ready to "go there" if need be.

Please feel free to respond here or pm me. We call c dif the "devil disease" at our house. It has impacted so many areas of my life and my family's lives. I empathize with each person reading this.

God bless you. We WILL get better!!!!!

[Lisa33]

That is such a wonderful feeling when you actually feel like you found the right doctor that gets what's going on. I'm so glad for you that you have this plan in place. I will pray that the Dificid does the trick, but it's so great that you have the FMT as the next step just in case. Dificid has worked for many on this board. Some have actually been cured by Dificid tapers. I also had a vitamin D deficiency after c-diff. It's not unusual to have vitamin deficiencies after such a horrific illness. It sounds like this doctor was worth the drive. I will pray that the Dificid kills the beast once and for all.

PS. Allison on this board has been having issues with losing posts as well. I have had issues in the past, but I think it was due to myself having fat fingers. Just a suggestion to avoid future frustrations....I do this for long posts....I type them in Word first and then copy and paste them into here. Therefore if it goes into mystery land, you can just copy and paste it again.

Keep us posted,
Lisa

[beth22]

I had a vitamin D deficiency as well as A. When my vitamin D levels normalized, my stools improved a lot too - much firmer. I don't know what one has to do with another, but even now, I can tell if it gets lower because stools get looser.

So glad you found a doctor who is doing something to help you. I had FMT because meds did not cure me, but Dificid was not out then. Maybe it would have helped. Who knows.

[Suze]

Moderator....please move...i just couldn't figure out where to post this...

From Consumer Reports (10/3/15) regarding hospitals with highest MRSA and CDiff rates:



http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/heal ... s-to-avoid